Tag Archives: cancer

The Road to Diamond, Day 249: Passages

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

August 4, 2025- Another cancer patient of long-suffering winged his flight to the Spirit Realm, this morning, as I was preparing for a day of service. Like my friend who died yesterday, this man had been receiving the emotional, spiritual and material support of many, who were hoping against hope for a cure. Like my friend, he was simply suffering too much and called to the Divine for release.

Each day brings a passage of sorts to each of us. One either gets stronger, or weaker, or holds the line, in the course of the passage. Each change in body, mind and spirit happens according to which life lessons have been absorbed by the soul. Sometimes, as the body has earned its rest, the spirit goes on to a higher realm. Other times, as there are still life lessons to be absorbed and actions that must be taken by the individual, physical life continues. This is my limited understanding of the process.

I, like Robert Frost’s protagonist, in “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening”, “have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep”. The promises kept today were serving as Blood Donor Ambassador at a Red Cross drive in Prescott Valley and serving at the Monday evening Soup Kitchen. There will be several others, locally, that encompass this month. September and October’s promises go further afield; November’s will be fulfilled back here; December’s will be a mix; next year’s fall between the Philippines, Texas and Arizona. “Promise not that which ye don’t fulfill”.

We essentially engage in passages, so that those who paved the way for us might feel fulfilled and those who are following after us might see an illumined path. If I can do both, this life will continue to be well worth each day. My forebears watch from the next world and my progeny look on expectantly. I feel a lot of encouraging energy.

The Road to Diamond, Day 248: First Responders

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Posted by on in Assistance, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 3, 2025- A friend, who was a First Responder, passed on today, after a lengthy bout with cancer. The circumstances of his job most likely led to a build-up, of toxic materials, over time. This may very well have led to his untimely passing.

Many don’t think of the sacrifices that police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians give, each day. Their loved ones know, first hand, of both the long hours on the job, and the uncertainty of their return home at end of shift. We, the public, experience these realities on occasions such as the collapse of the World Trade Center, in September, 2001 and the wildfires in Yarnell, AZ and in El Dorado County, CA. (2013 and 2014, respectively).

For so many other First Responders, death is not immediate, but happens as it did with my friend, with a painful slowness. Over a thousand firefighters and police officers involved in the response to September 11, 2001’s horrific carnage have died from the after effects of that incident.

Their loved ones carry their pain as well, and suffer themselves, both along with the victim and long after his/her passing. It is worthwhile, for their sakes, and in honour of the services made, for each of us to be discerning, in our own dealings with First Responders, especially at the local level.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 43: Be Not Proud

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Posted by on in Family, Historical, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 13, 2020-

In 1949, John Gunther wrote an account of the decline in health, and passing, of his son, Johnny. I read this book, “Death Be Not Proud”, in 1962, at the age of 11. It has informed my own attitude and reflections towards the transition of people from this life. My father also read it, and it informed not only his attitiude towards death, but the ferocity of his devotion to us, his five children, especially to his youngest, Brian, and in facing my youngest brother’s disabilities.

The book’s message, of indomitable courage and ferocity, in facing life’s worst challenges, came to mind today, with news of the passing, yesterday, of the actress Kelly Preston, after a two-year battle with cancer. This evening, I learned of the passing, late last month, of a maternal second cousin, after an EIGHTEEN-YEAR battle royale with the same disease. Neither woman lacked the slightest bit of courage and dedication to things far greater than herself. Both were sterling champions. I kept looking at one or more of Penny’s photos, as I prayed for the departed souls. My beloved fought a thirteen-year battle of her own.

Death is any number of things, but one thing it is not- is surrender. I am convinced that every person who has ever faced down danger or disease takes the strengths acquired in the struggle, right along with them, in transitioning to the next series of adventures. I am also convinced that the soul sends clarion calls to those left behind-to remember the struggle and apply the lessons learned, that they, the remnants, and this, the world left behind, can rise and truly shine, brighter than ever.

“Death, be not proud (Holy Sonnet 10)”

John Donne – 1571-1631

“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou’art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy’or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”

Granger

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Posted by on in Inspiration, Personal Values, Striving

January 19, 2017, Prescott-

Miguel Ferrer died today.  He was well-known for roles in “The Stand”, “Crossing Jordan” and, most recently, “NCIS-Los Angeles”.  The last is where I best knew his work, as the irascible Owen Granger, right-hand man to Unit Director Henrietta Lange (Linda Hunt) and father figure to three of the team members.  I have had a suspicion that Granger was to be written out of the script, (no further spoiler alert), due to Mr. Ferrer’s cancer having taken a turn for the worse, of late.  Now, this is all moot.

In watching television shows, I tend to root for the people in the background, hoping they will come forward and show their strengths.  Granger was an on-screen booster of background players, like Eric Christian Olsen’s Marty Deeks and Renee- Felice Smith’s Nell Jones.  I get the sense that Miguel Ferrer chose this sort of persona, that his own life was spent encouraging young people to play to their hidden strengths, to never sell themselves short.  As this is how I have chosen to spend my own life, his performances have been a well-polished mirror.

RIP, Miguel, and may Owen Granger’s counsel live on.